How to Setup a RAID System
Operating System Installation (Cont’d)
Contents
When the screen in Figure 17 appears, press the S key and choose the driver from the floppy disk that Windows should load (see Figure 18). In our case, we had to choose “Intel (R) 82801GR/GH SATA RAID Controller (Desktop ICH7R/DH),” since our motherboard used an ICH7R chip.
Figure 18: Selecting the driver that should be used
After selecting the driver, the previous screen (Figure 17) will appear again, now showing the driver that will be installed (see Figure 19).
Figure 19: Windows showing the driver that will be used
From now on, Windows will recognize your RAID array correctly. In our example, since we configured a RAID0 system with two 80 GB hard disk drives, Windows is recognizing only one 160 GB hard disk drive, as you can see in Figure 20.
Figure 20: Windows is recognizing our RAID0 system correctly as if it were one 160 GB drive
Keep in mind that the numbers shown on our screenshots are a little lower, since hard disk drives are labeled using a “fake” capacity. For example, our 80 GB hard disk drives were actually 74.53 GB drives. That’s why you see 150 GB in Figure 20 and not 160 GB.
Now follow the normal Windows installation process: Install all drivers of the hardware attached to your system, install the programs you use, and you are finished.
Usually, RAID controllers also come with management software that you can install to monitor your RAID system. This component is optional.
